Three Wishing Tales Read online

  Also by Ruth Chew

  NO SUCH THING AS A WITCH

  WHAT THE WITCH LEFT

  MAGIC IN THE PARK

  THE TROUBLE WITH MAGIC

  THREE WITCH TALES

  (AN EBOOK OMNIBUS):

  THE WITCH’S BUTTONS

  WITCH’S CAT

  THE WITCH’S GARDEN

  This is a 2014 Stepping Stones ebook.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The Magic Coin copyright © 1983 by Ruth Chew

  The Magic Cave copyright © 1973 by Ruth Chew

  The Wishing Tree copyright © 1980 by Ruth Chew

  Cover art copyright © 2014 by David Hohn

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York. The three works comprising this collection were originally published separately by Scholastic, Inc., New York, in 1973, 1980, and 1983.

  The Magic Cave was originally published in paperback as The Hidden Cave by Scholastic, Inc., New York.

  Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks and A Stepping Stone Book and the colophon are trademarks of Random House LLC.

  Visit us on the Web!

  SteppingStonesBooks.com

  randomhouse.com/kids

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at RHTeachersLibrarians.com

  eBook ISBN: 978-0-449-81587-8

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v3.1

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Other Books by This Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  The Magic Coin

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  The Magic Cave

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  The Wishing Tree

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  About the Author

  “Sorry, young lady, this isn’t any good.” The man behind the counter handed back the coin Meredith had given him.

  “The sign says pencils are two for a quarter,” Meredith told him.

  “But that isn’t a quarter.” The store man turned to help a lady who wanted to buy a box of envelopes.

  Meredith put down the pencils she was holding.

  “What’s the matter, Meredith?” Christopher asked.

  Meredith set her book bag on the floor of the store. She showed her brother the coin. “I thought it was a quarter.”

  Christopher took a good look. “It’s the same size as a quarter. But everything else about it is different.”

  The store man leaned over the counter. “If you aren’t going to buy anything, kids, why don’t you go outside?”

  Meredith picked up her book bag. The two children went out of the store onto Church Avenue.

  “Where’d you get that coin?” Christopher asked.

  “They didn’t have the paper at the corner candy store this morning,” Meredith said. “Daddy sent me to the newsstand on McDonald Avenue to get one.”

  “That’s more than four blocks from our house,” Christopher said. “Weren’t you late for school?”

  “I ran all the way,” Meredith told him. “Daddy gave me a half-dollar and said I could keep the change. I’d better go back and tell the man at the newsstand he made a mistake.”

  “Let me see it again.” Christopher reached for the coin.

  Meredith handed it to him and started walking down the busy Brooklyn street.

  Christopher looked first at one side of the coin and then at the other. He turned it on edge. “I can’t see any copper in it. Maybe it’s all silver.”

  “Then it’s worth more than a quarter.” Meredith started to walk faster. “I’ve got to give it back.” She looked around. “Hurry up, Chris.”

  “Instead of an eagle,” Christopher said, “there’s a shield on the back. And the face on the front isn’t at all like the man on the quarter.”

  “George Washington is on the quarter,” Meredith reminded him. She waited for her brother to catch up with her. “Let me see what you’re talking about.”

  Christopher gave her the coin.

  Meredith looked hard at the shield. “That’s a coat of arms. It’s what knights had.”

  She turned over the coin.

  A man’s face was on the other side. He had a trim little beard and wore a suit with a collar and a bow tie. Meredith remembered that on the quarter George Washington was wearing only a hair ribbon. You could see just one side of his face. This man was looking straight at Meredith and frowning.

  “He doesn’t look much like a knight in armor,” Christopher said.

  Meredith started walking faster.

  At McDonald Avenue Meredith and Christopher crossed the street and went over to the newsstand.

  Meredith showed the silver coin to the man there. “You gave it to me by mistake this morning,” she said. “My change should have been a quarter.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the man said. “You didn’t get that from me. Run along and don’t bother me.”

  Meredith put the coin back into her pocket and walked away from the newsstand. “I wish that man hadn’t been so nasty,” she told Christopher, “but I’m glad I didn’t have to give him the coin.”

  “So am I,” Christopher said. “It’s a nice thing to keep.”

  Meredith took out the coin again. Christopher grabbed his sister’s arm. “Look!” he whispered.

  Meredith stared.

  The little bearded face on the coin was smiling!

  Meredith was so surprised that she nearly dropped the coin. She couldn’t take her eyes off the face of the little man.

>   The more she looked, the more it seemed as if the coin could never have been any other way than it was now. Both children kept looking at it. The face on the coin didn’t move even a little bit.

  Finally Christopher said, “It’s funny. I thought he had an angry sort of face.”

  Meredith nodded. “To me he seemed worried. Now he looks happy.” She thought for a minute. “Chris, we’re being silly. It’s the light that makes the coin look different.”

  It was still light out, but the sky was becoming cloudy.

  “It’s getting late. Mother must be wondering where we are. We’d better go home.” Meredith started walking toward the corner of the street.

  They turned onto Albemarle Road. It was a quiet street with big old houses on each side. Meredith and Christopher could go much faster here than on Church Avenue where there were crowds of people.

  Pale green blossoms misted the branches of the maple trees. And little green buds peppered the hedges in the front yards. Meredith stopped to look at a yellow crocus.

  “I thought we were in a hurry,” Christopher said. “Mom’s probably mad already.”

  Meredith felt a drop of rain on her cheek. Another one splashed on her nose. She was wearing her new spring coat. “I wish we had an umbrella.”

  Meredith remembered that she was still holding the silver coin. She tried to put it into her pocket, but it wouldn’t fit. “Chris!”

  Christopher turned around. “What’s the matter?”

  Meredith held up the coin.

  It was as big as a saucer. And it was getting bigger!

  At the same time the coin was getting thinner. In a few seconds it was so thin that the children could almost see through it. The shield on the back showed through and got mixed up with the face on the front of the coin.

  Next the edges curved down to make a big upside-down bowl.

  The coin wasn’t any heavier than before, but it was so big now that Meredith had to balance it over her head with one hand. She had her book bag in the other.

  Meredith felt a bump on the underside of the coin. It sprouted down like a silver stem. She found herself holding onto it as if it were a handle.

  Her brother stood next to her. The rain was pouring all around them, but they weren’t getting wet.

  Christopher and Meredith were standing under a big silver umbrella.

  “You can’t tell me it’s only the light,” Christopher said.

  For a minute Meredith just looked up into the umbrella. “No, Chris. It isn’t the light. It’s magic.”

  “Magic or not, Mom’s sure to have a fit if we’re not home soon,” Christopher told her.

  Meredith started walking quickly along Albemarle Road. Christopher was shorter than she was. He had to run to keep up with her.

  The rain was splashing all around the umbrella, but even their feet stayed dry. At East Fifth Street, Meredith and Christopher turned the corner and hurried to a house in the middle of the block. They climbed the front stoop.

  Christopher rang the doorbell. “You’d better close the umbrella before Mom sees it. She’s going to ask us where we got it. And she’ll never believe what we tell her.”

  “I don’t know how to shut it,” Meredith said. “It doesn’t have any spokes, so how can it fold? I wish we had some way to hide it.”

  The umbrella seemed to shiver. The silver handle got shorter and shorter. In a second or two Meredith was once again balancing the big bowl on her hand. The bowl flattened into a plate, and the plate began to shrink.

  Mrs. Dalby opened the door of the house. “You must be soaked.” She looked at Meredith. “Why are you holding your hand like that?” She smiled. “Does it keep the rain off you?”

  Meredith looked up. She was holding the silver coin over her head.

  “Come in before you get any wetter.” Mrs. Dalby pulled the children into the house. “Get out of your coat, Meredith. I’ll hang it up for you.”

  Meredith put down her book bag and unbuttoned her coat with one hand. She was holding the magic coin in the other.

  Mrs. Dalby picked up the coat and went to hang it up. “It’s not nearly as wet as I thought it would be,” she said. “Bring your jacket here, Chris. And let’s see your shoes.”

  “Do you think I should go in the kitchen and pour water over my shoes?” Christopher whispered to Meredith.

  “Don’t be silly, Chris!” Meredith said. But she too was wondering what she could tell her mother.

  Mrs. Dalby hung up Christopher’s jacket and looked hard at both his and Meredith’s shoes. “The rain seemed to be coming down in buckets,” she said. “How did you keep from getting wet?”

  Meredith looked at the coin in her hand. The face on it was frowning at her. She took a deep breath. “We had a magic umbrella, Mother.”

  Mrs. Dalby laughed. “That explains everything,” she said. “Come into the kitchen now and get your after-school snack before it’s suppertime.”

  Meredith took another look at the coin.

  The little bearded face was smiling again.

  After supper Mr. and Mrs. Dalby settled themselves in the living room to watch television. Christopher sat on the floor next to his father’s chair.

  “Don’t you have any homework, Chris?” his mother asked. “Meredith is up in her room doing hers now.”

  “Oh, I forgot.” Christopher walked into the dining room to get his books off the buffet. Then he went upstairs.

  Meredith’s door was open. She was sitting at her desk working on her math. Christopher had never seen Meredith’s pencil move so fast.

  He tiptoed into the room and stood behind her. Meredith was doing a page of fractions. Christopher knew she hated them.

  He watched Meredith copying numbers out of her math book. She leaned forward to look at something on her desk. A moment later she wrote some more numbers on her paper.

  It seemed to Christopher as if something were giving Meredith the answers to her math problems. He craned his neck to see what it was. There was a pile of books on the desk. He couldn’t make out what was on the other side.

  “Meredith,” Christopher said, “what’s going on?”

  Meredith turned around. “I’m beginning to understand fractions.”

  “What have you got on your desk that you keep looking at?” Christopher asked.

  Meredith stood up. “Look.”

  Christopher leaned over the pile of books. He saw that Meredith had placed the magic coin right where the desk lamp would shine on it. The little bearded face looked up at Christopher.

  “He seems to be asking what it is I want from him,” Christopher said.

  “That’s just what I thought,” Meredith told him. “And when I look at him for a little while, I understand what I have to do.”

  “How about lending me the coin?” Christopher asked. “You’ve been using it long enough.”

  “Come on, Chris, you know my homework’s much harder than yours.” Meredith picked up the coin. “You always want somebody to help you. I wish for once you could do your homework by yourself.”

  “Oh, all right.” Christopher walked out of the room.

  Meredith went on with her math. When she finished it she opened her social studies book. She used the coin for a bookmark.

  The lesson was about Columbus and how he discovered an island and named it Little Spain. Meredith thought the magic coin trembled between the pages of the book.

  It was an exciting story, but there were sad parts in it. When Meredith finished reading she felt as if she had been on the faraway island with the people who were greedy for gold and the other people who died working in the mines to get it for them.

  Meredith took the silver coin out from between the pages and laid it on the desk top. Then she closed the book.

  Christopher came back into the room. “Guess what,” he said. “I did my spelling homework all by myself. And I’ll bet I can spell every one of those words.”

  Meredith caught sight of the face on the coin.
The little man was not exactly smiling now. He just looked very pleased with himself.

  Next morning Meredith fell back to sleep after her mother called her. Mrs. Dalby was so busy trying to get Christopher up that it was breakfast time before she found Meredith was still in bed.

  It was after eight o’clock. Meredith dived into her clothes and gobbled a bowlful of cornflakes. She grabbed her coat and book bag and rushed out of the door after Christopher.

  They were two blocks from home when Meredith remembered that they’d left their lunch bags on the kitchen table. They ran back to get them.

  “Hurry, children,” Mrs. Dalby said. “You’ll be late for school.” She went down the basement stairs with a load of laundry.

  Christopher picked up his lunch. “What did you do with the magic coin?”

  “I left it in my room.” Meredith ran upstairs.

  Christopher followed her. Meredith was in such a rush to grab the coin off her desk that she dropped it on the floor.

  Christopher put his foot on the coin to stop it from rolling away.

  Meredith bent down. She poked her fingers under Christopher’s shoe to grab hold of the silver coin. “I thought taking it to school might help me with the math test,” she said. “But it’s only going to make us late. I wish there was some way we could get to school on time.”

  The room seemed to blur before the children’s eyes. A minute later everything was clear again.

  “Wow!” Christopher said. “Look at the coin!”

  The silver coin was as wide as the kitchen table. Meredith looked across the room. Her bed was very far away. And it was the size of an apartment building.

  The coin started to rise in the air. Christopher was standing on it. He sat down. Meredith climbed up beside him. She thought her weight would push the coin back onto the floor, but it just floated higher.

  The silver coin sailed across Meredith’s bedroom. Her window was open a crack at the top. The window was enormous now. And so was the crack. The coin slipped through into the open air outside.

  Meredith put her book bag on her lap. Christopher tucked his books and his lunch between his knees. Both of them held tight to the sides of the flying coin.

  Meredith looked over the edge at the streets and houses below. They seemed much bigger than they ought to be. “You know what I think?”